Stucco repair or stucco restoration? How to read the word on your quote

Two quotes on the kitchen table, same house, same cracked corner under the back window. One says stucco repair, about $650. The other says stucco restoration, close to $7,000. Most people assume the second contractor is greedy or the first one is sloppy, and now and then that's true. More often the two words describe two different jobs and neither paper says so plainly. After 25-plus years on walls across Halton, Peel, Toronto and York, stucco restoration vs repair is the question I get asked most often at the door.

So this post puts every kind of stucco work on one scale, from a resealed joint to a whole new finish, with the prices from our own price list. Then it prices one back wall three ways, matches what you can see on your wall to the right size of job, and goes through the words a decent quote should contain.

Is stucco restoration the same as stucco repair?

No, though the words overlap. A repair fixes one spot: a crack, a hole, a soft patch beside a window. A restoration brings a whole wall, or the whole house, back to sound and matching, which usually means several repairs plus a new finish over the full elevation. Neither word is a scope on its own, so read the line items.

Nothing in Ontario decides what a contractor may call a restoration. I've seen the word printed on a pressure-wash-and-paint job and on a strip-to-the-studs re-clad. That is how two "restoration" quotes for the same wall can sit ten to one apart. The questions that actually separate them are simple: what comes off the wall, what gets fixed behind it, and how much of the surface gets a new finish.

Five sizes of stucco work, from smallest to biggest

Every quote I've ever read lands somewhere on this ladder, or on several rungs at once. The prices are the ones on our stucco repair price list.

1. 1

   Resealing the joints

   Old sealant cut out at windows, doors and trim, new backer rod and bead. Stops leaks at the edges of the wall, not in it.

   $6 to $12 per linear ft
2. 2

   Crack repair

   Each crack routed open, meshed, base-coated and textured to match. Stops one crack from letting water in.

   $120 to $400 per crack
3. 3

   Patch and texture match

   A hole or a failed spot up to about 20 sq ft, cut back and rebuilt in the same texture.

   $450 to $1,200
4. 4

   Section rebuild

   Stucco taken off down to the sheathing where water got in, the cause fixed, the board dried or replaced, then base and finish rebuilt.

   $18 to $34 per sq ft
5. 5

   Full elevation refinish

   After the repairs underneath, a new base coat, mesh and finish over one whole wall, corner to corner. This is what most of us in the trade mean by restoration.

   $9 to $16 per sq ft

Rungs 1 to 3 are repair work. Rung 5 is restoration, and it nearly always has some of rungs 1 to 4 inside it, because nobody worth hiring puts a new finish over a crack that is still moving or a board that is still wet. Rung 4 is the hinge between the two words. One rebuilt section under a window is a repair. Rebuilt sections all along a wall, followed by a new finish over the lot, is a restoration.

One back wall, priced three ways

Say it's a 1990s two-storey of the kind you find all over Glen Abbey and Bronte, where a lot of our Oakville stucco calls come from. The back elevation is about 400 sq ft. Both windows have diagonal cracks running off their lower corners, and there's a brown streak under one of them. Three people come out and look at it.

Quote A is the one I spend my autumns undoing. It's the $99 patch-and-pray crew with a bigger sprayer: the brown streak disappears for a summer, the board behind it keeps rotting, and the cracks show through the paint by the second January. Calling it a restoration doesn't change what it is.

Quote B is a perfectly honest repair. If the rest of the wall is in good shape and the finish can be matched, it's the right job, and it's a fraction of the money. The catch is the match. A new patch on a 30-year-old finish that the sun has bleached is hard to hide, and I explain why in the post on stucco patch matching.

Quote C costs more because it buys more: the same two repairs, plus a wall with no patches to see and a new layer of mesh over the old crack lines. Here is that arithmetic laid out.

Twenty-four square feet of rebuilt corners at $18 to $34, four hundred square feet of new finish at $9 to $16, and thirty-two feet of sealant at $6 to $12. If the board under the brown streak turns out to be wet further than the corner, the rebuilt area grows and so does the first line. That's why a fair quote says what the rate is for extra rebuilt area before anyone picks up a hammer.

Which one does my wall need?

Count the problems, then look at the finish between them. One or two problems on a finish that's still sound and close in colour: repair them. Problems spread across the wall, or a finish that's chalky, faded or already patched: restore the elevation. Soft or bulging spots mean opening the wall first, whichever word ends up on the paper.

Before anyone prices rung 4 or 5, the wet areas should be measured, not guessed. How that's done on a stucco wall is in the guide to stucco moisture testing. On our own repair page the rule is written plainly: anyone quoting a full re-stucco before looking behind the finish is guessing. The same goes for a restoration quote with no line about what happens behind the wall.

Words to look for on a restoration quote

A quote for real restoration work names what is done in the order it's done. These are the phrases I'd want to see, and what each one should mean.

Remove to substrate, or to sheathing

The stucco comes off down to the board behind it, so the crew can see whether that board is sound. Without this line, whatever is behind the stain stays there.

Rate for additional rebuild

A price per square foot for rebuilt area found once the wall is open. Agreed in writing before the work starts, it keeps a surprise from turning into an argument on the scaffold.

Full elevation, corner to corner

The new finish runs to a corner, a trim line or a joint, so you never get an edge across the middle of a wall. If a quote only says "blend", ask where the edge will be.

Mesh embedded in base coat

Cure time between coats

Mesh is the reinforcement that stops a new finish from cracking along the old lines, and cement base coat needs days to cure before the finish goes on. A restoration with no mesh and a one-day schedule is a coat of paint with a better name.

Texture and colour match to existing

Belongs on a repair quote. Ask whether you'll see a sample on the wall before the whole patch is finished.

Fall jobs on this ladder have one more line worth checking: the dates. Base coat and finish need temperatures above freezing while they cure, and a GTA November can close that window quickly, which is the whole subject of getting stucco work done before winter.

When restoration turns into a new exterior

Sometimes the honest answer to "restore or repair" is neither. When every side of the house is cracked, the lath is rusting through, or the moisture check finds wet sheathing on most walls, the money goes further on a new system than on rebuilding most of the old one a section at a time. Our residential stucco page puts a new system at $8 to $16 per sq ft installed, and a whole detached house usually lands between $18,000 and $40,000. When the old stucco is sound but tired, there's a middle road, a new coat over the old one, which I go through in stucco over existing stucco.

You can see what a finished repair and restoration looks like on a real house in our Mississauga stucco repair and restoration project. And if you're holding two quotes that use different words, send me both, with a photo of the whole wall and a close-up of the worst spot, through the contact page, or call (905) 973-6470. I usually get back to people within a day, and our own quote is fixed, in writing and free.